Topic for Spring 2014: Pwnd!!! Order, Conflict, & Unrest in Virtual Worlds
This course examines the governance of virtual worlds, as well as the conflict and unrest that emerge in these environments. Investigating a broad range of virtual worlds, such as gaming worlds, social worlds, and kid/teen worlds, this course will analyze how these spaces are designed and regulated, more importantly, how their users/players resist some of these governance structures. Accordingly, the course will look at issues that arise from intellectual property ownership, sales of virtual items in real-world websites like eBay, goldfarming, griefing, and virtual harassment, including virtual rape. Specifically, we will investigate how the events that take place in these environments bear the potential to affect our offline lives by redefining our legal systems and policies that govern the Internet at large.